Exonerating the Empire in Venezuela
The United States has for years undermined the Venezuelan economy with economic sanctions, but US media coverage of Venezuela’s financial crisis has gone out of its way to obscure this.
Extra! November 2017 Soundbites
Ignoring the Fantasies That Kill Real People… Here’s What Forgetting History Looks Like… Disclosure: I Get Paid to Fool WaPo Readers About Climate… Freebooter Turns Freelancer… And by ‘Dethroning,’ We Mean One-10th as Popular… Trump’s Problem Is That New York Doesn’t Understand Media… Questions That Don’t Require Asking
Jim Naureckas on Bret Stephens, Paul Paz y Miño on Ecuador’s Oil Devastation
The New York Times is having trouble squaring its hire of climate change denialist Bret Stephens for a regular column with its current PR campaign branding the paper a bastion of rationality in a dangerously “alt-fact” moment.
‘The Trump Administration Looks Like Bad News for Almost Every Element of Drug Policy Reform’
“When asked about what to do on drug policy, he’s the one whose answer was, well, yes, you have to reduce demand; his thought was, we just need a massive advertising campaign.”
‘They Let Everybody Know the US Was on the Side of This Coup’
“This is not what the Brazilian people voted for in the last three elections.”
Mark Weisbrot on Brazilian Overthrow, Shahid Buttar on Copwatcher Retaliation
Many Brazilians are calling the ouster of President Dilma Rousseff a coup, but the official US position is, what now? Plus: We talk about the importance of legal—and journalistic—defense of citizen journalists.
Trump’s Bigotry Reminds US Media of Anywhere but Home
The first instinct of many in the US press and political class is to treat Trump as if he’s some foreign entity, an exotic outsider who can only be referenced with regard to Less Civilized Countries.
In Campaign Against Venezuela, NYT Cites Former Member of Death Squad Alliance
In its nonstop campaign against the government of Venezuela, the New York Times is now forced to lean on the thin reed of Paraguay’s ultra-rightist government, which took power in elections widely characterized by fraud, as even the Timesnoted when they occurred.
‘What Happens to These Hundreds of Thousands of People That Are Being Deported?’
“If the US were to acknowledge Central Americans, it’s almost like the State Department would [have to] acknowledge its complicity with the level of violence that has been happening, not just right now, but over a hundred years in the region.”
Brazil’s Neighbors Warn of President’s ‘Dangerous’ Ouster—but US Press Isn’t Listening
A Nexis search turns up no US newspaper that reported on the recall of the Venezuelan or Salvadoran ambassadors to Brazil in response to the efforts to oust twice-elected Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
Sheila Carapico on Saudi Arabia Visit, Maria Luisa Mendonça on Brazil Impeachment
The friendship between the US and Saudi Arabia faces friction, media said—but not Saudi Arabia’s disastrous human rights record or anti-democratic government. Plus: is the situation in Brazil best summed up as “The People vs. The President,” as one pundit had it?
‘There’s Never Been a Drug Law That Wasn’t Tied to Race’
“When you were talking about the first opiate laws, those were against Chinese people. The first cocaine laws are against black people, with the New York Times screaming about the Negro cocaine menace.”
asha bandele and Laura Carlsen on the War on Drugs
CounterSpin talks about the War on Drugs with asha bandele of Drug Policy Alliance, and also with Laura Carlsen of the Americas Program of the Center for International Policy.
‘They Want South America Back the Way They Used to Have It’
“They took sides against all the left governments, and they supported military coups in Venezuela, in Honduras, kind of a parliamentary coup in Paraguay. So they’ve been trying to get rid of all the left governments, really, for the whole 21st century, when they all came in, and they’re still trying to do that.”
Aviva Chomsky on Obama in Cuba, Mark Weisbrot on Argentina’s Right Turn
We talk about what would really need to change to “normalize” US/Cuba relations. And in Argentina, a thrilled press corps tells us a new day is dawning with the election of “former businessman” Mauricio Mauri.
‘Her Life Hung by a Thread Because of This Work’
“She started this group COPINH, which is composed of Lenca indigenous and other rural-based peoples, about 20 years ago. The group has been stunning in its victories.”
US Contribution to Death of Honduran Activist Goes Unmentioned in US Coverage
Almost none of the US coverage of Honduran activist Berta Carceres’ murder mentioned that the brutal regime that likely killed her came to power in a 2009 coup d’etat supported by the US, under President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Laura Carlsen on the Arrest of ‘El Chapo,’ Omar Shakir on Closing Guantanamo
If the reason the arrest of Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo” Guzman is so significant is its impact on the war on drugs—what, really, is that impact?
Death-Squad Organizer Is NYT’s Source on Ben Carson’s Lack of Foreign Policy Smarts
In its effort to vet one of the leading GOP presidential candidates, Dr. Ben Carson, the New York Times didn’t properly vet its primary source in this vetting, former CIA officer Duane Clarridge—an indicted liar and overseer of Contra death squads in Central America.
Fox, Daily Beast Stories on Cubans in Syria Lack One Thing: Evidence of Cubans in Syria
A Cuban troop presence in Syria would be a blockbuster story indeed—undermining the easing of tensions between Cuba and the United States. There’s only one problem: The story is looking increasingly bunk.
